


Lessons in Cooperation

by Anxiety_Pickle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, I'm not sure what to tag?, Kakashi makes SNS go to marriage counseling, M/M, it goes about as well as you'd expect, outside pov, sns, very light angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:15:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24273400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anxiety_Pickle/pseuds/Anxiety_Pickle
Summary: Akari, accomplished marriage counselor, is not expecting the two twelve year old boys on her couch this morning, but she's never been one to step down from a challenge - especially not one that commands her curiosity in the way Shinobi do. It's not too often she sees those in her office. These two might be her biggest challenge yet, though.When she sees Kakashi again, she's going to kill him.Or, Sasuke and Naruto go to marriage counseling.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 44
Kudos: 508





	Lessons in Cooperation

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this while I was bored and my friend convinced me to post it lol. This started out short and then evolved into this monstrosity. Just some short cute SNS and Kakashi being a bastard. I'm kinda a sucker for outside perspective so there's some of that. This takes place after the whole Land of Waves arc. 
> 
> Also we all know this is an AU because Konoha doesn't have counseling services.

Akari loves her job dearly, and with over twenty years of work under her belt, she considers herself prepared for anything - she’s seen it all, couples of all shapes and sizes, in various degrees of disarray. She prides herself on her open mindedness, her ability to stay professional. She does not, however, expect the two twelve year olds sitting sullenly on the velvety black couch in the lobby. She pauses, glancing back to make sure that she did, indeed, walk into her office and not her neighbor’s, but the address is right, which means these two are here for marriage counseling. 

Not a second later, though, does she remember the unorthodox proposal made by a strange silver haired man two days ago, that she consult with his two unruly students. There, on her clipboard, is her eight o’ clock appointment, circled in red ink. She straightens her outfit crisply, reminds herself that she’s a professional, swallows the rest of her coffee before crushing the cup in the garbage can, and strides over, heels clicking on the hardwood. 

The blonde haired one, Naruto, she thinks, glares up at her through narrowed eyes. Next to him, an appropriate distance away, on the other end of the couch, the black haired boy sits with his head balanced on his chin, looking anywhere but the two of them.

Oh, boy.

But it’s not the worst she’s seen - far from it. She’s more than equipped to deal with this, she reminds herself, even if these two technically aren’t the usual demographic of her clientele. 

“Naruto, Sasuke?” She reads off her clipboard, and at the hastily scribbled notes written in the margins as their jonin teacher had explained to her the situation - oh, and wasn’t that a journey. She smiles pleasantly. “Come on into my office.” She leads them past the potted plants and inspirational signs, “You can close the door behind you.”

Her office is small, with her desk and one other couch at the other side of the room. Naruto gives it one disgusted look and declares that he’d rather sit on the floor, plopping down on the rug and crossing his arms. Sasuke, similarly miffed, sits on the end opposite to where Naruto is sitting. Akari watches the exchange dispassionately.

Well, she reminds herself, she’s still seen much worse. She’s more than capable of handling two twelve year olds, Shinobi or not.

“So,” She folds her hands and offers them the most pleasant smile she can manage, despite the fact that Naruto refuses to so much as sit next to Sasuke and the fact that Sasuke hasn’t engaged since she’s walked into the office. “What brings you two here today?”

“Kakashi bastard!” Naruto exclaims, fuming, complete with wild gesticulation and over the top hand gestures. “He said we need to _get along better_. Yeah _right_. Sasuke’s the only one who needs an attitude adjustment!”

Sasuke bristles. “Me? I saved _you_ , moron!”

“ _I could’ve gotten out of that situation all by myself_!”

Sasuke twitches. “You went over a _cliff_.”

“I had it handled!”

“If you had it _handled_ , you _wouldn’t have gone over the cliff in the first place, you fucking dumba_ -”

“Okay, boys-” She interjects, eager to cut them off before the argument can escalate. They glare at each other, and then at her. Well, if there’s one thing they’re united in, it’s their hostility towards each other. The jonin - Kakashi - had mentioned that they were a little… _contentious_ , but he hadn't mentioned to what degree. She really should’ve expected this, if he was willing to come to her (shinobi are a proud bunch, and very few of them come to counseling willingly, for some ridiculous reason), but these two continue to baffle her.

“Alright.” She starts slowly. “How about you explain the situation?”

Naruto opens his mouth.

“ _Without_ insulting each other.”

He closes it.

“Naruto, you go first.”

“Fine.” He huffs, hunched over and sulking. “We were picking up trash in the river because Kakashi-bastard won’t give us _real_ missions, and I was picking up more trash than Sasuke ‘cause I’m way better than him, but then…” He squirms. “I slipped and went over the waterfall.”

She nods. “Alright, Sasuke, your turn.”

“He slipped and I jumped after him.”

Well, that was… concise. 

“Alright.” She says after a moment of deliberation. “Why does Sasuke helping you bother you so much, Naruto?”

“It doesn’t _bother_ me!” Naruto squawks. “He just thinks he’s _so_ much better than me ‘cause of that ice kid. I don’t need your help!”

“How is that _my_ fault?” Sasuke snaps. “ _You_ were the one who passed out. What was I supposed to do, die?”

The two of them pause, at that. 

An awkward silence drones on.

“ _Okay_.” She clears her throat delicately. It seems like that’s about the meat of the issue. “So something happened on the last mission. Don’t feel the need to censor anything, I’m cleared for S-rank, so you can talk. What happened?” She writes carefully down in her log.

“ _Nothing happened_!” Naruto all but shrieks, sputtering. “Nothing at all!” 

Sasuke is looking steadfast out the window. 

She refuses to sigh. She’s better than that. She's a professional and these are twelve year olds. She can handle them, but she suddenly feels a pang of sympathy for Kakashi, though it fades as quickly as it appears.

“How about you start at the beginning?” She suggests. “You mentioned an…” She clears her throat. “‘Ice kid’?”

“We were on a mission.” Naruto squirms, hand at the nape of his neck. “And there was this kid that I thought was a girl but it turns out he was a boy, and he pretended to be that thing-”

“ANBU?” Sasuke intones dryly.

“Yeah, that, and he could make ice mirrors and come out of them or something. And he could throw needles. He did that.” 

She waits for him to elaborate, and when he doesn’t, she resigns herself to the unfortunate reality that that’s all she’s going to get out of him at the moment. Sasuke hasn’t engaged in conversation at all unless it’s to insult Naruto, and Naruto can’t seem to get a sentence out without insulting Sasuke. She can understand why this might disrupt teamwork.

“Let’s try something.” She suggests. “Naruto, tell me five things you like about Sasuke.”

“ _What_?!” He demands. “But I don’t like anything about him!”

She _will not sigh_. 

“You have _nothing_ you like or admire about him?” She asks, only slightly exasperated, and she’s honestly proud of herself for the effort. She’s suddenly very grateful for her decision to stay kid-free. “Nothing at all?”

“No.” He says mulishly.

“What about you, Sasuke?”

He just scowls, and doesn’t even _try_ to answer. 

She glances up at the clock. Eight thirty already, she has another appointment in ten minutes. 

Why did she agree to do this?

She glances back at them. Naruto snips something cheeky and Sasuke snarls back, Naruto kicks him in the leg and Sasuke kicks him in the head, it’s all she can do to keep them from devolving into physical violence on her couch, and they’ve accomplished nothing. The only thing she’s gotten out of this situation is that Naruto has some sort of inferiority complex and that he clearly has some measure of concern over Sasuke’s wellbeing, and Sasuke hasn’t really interacted enough with the conversation to infer anything, except for the fact that this has happened multiple times.

Next time she sees Kakashi, she’s going to remind him that she’s not his babysitter. 

(Then again, she isn’t sure she trusts him with their emotional growth either, if for the sole reason that she has never met a man more emotionally stunted).

“You two.” She declares. “I’m giving you some homework. You both come up with five nice things to say about each other and have them ready by the next time we meet.”

Naruto’s entire face twists up, as if he just swallowed an entire lemon. Is the prospect of coming back really so awful? She thinks dryly.

“We have to come back?”

“Kakashi only said we had to come today.” Sasuke frowns, eyes suspicious, and clearly displeased.

“He only _mentioned_ the first visit.” She corrects. “Since we didn’t solve your teamwork issues, you’re going to have to come back, I’m afraid. So, the sooner you get those things written, the sooner you’re free to go. Deal?”

Naruto mumbles a dejected ‘yes ma’am’ while Sasuke makes a noise that could be interpreted as agreement, if she was being generous. 

She herds them out of her office, watching as they walk side by side on the street, attempting to push each other into the gutter when they can, and sighs.

At least they didn’t destroy her office. How low her standards have fallen.

Next week, at the same time, the boys are back, similarly seated, and neither of them are looking at each other.

“So…” She prompts, without preamble. “Did you two do what I asked?” 

Based on their expressions, she’s willing to say that’s a definite _no_. 

“There’s nothing nice _to_ say.” Naruto huffs. 

“This is a waste of time.” Is all Sasuke has to say on the subject. She has her work cut out for her. 

She knows part of the reason that this has been ineffectual is because this conversation depends on the emotional maturity of two twelve year olds, and these two are notorious for their impressive amount of collective trauma. 

“Alright. Naruto, what do you think of Sasuke?”

Naruto positively beams at the opportunity to badmouth his teammate. “A full of himself, asshole!” He exclaims loudly, with little shame. “He thinks he’s so great just ‘cuz he’s the top of the academy and he has his magic eye thing-”

Sasuke stares at him exasperatedly. “The Sharingan?”

“Yeah, that’s what I _said_ -”

“That is _not_ what you said. Can you even think?”

Naruto growls. “See! Do you see what I have to deal with! He’s - he’s en-suf-la-ble!”

Sasuke gawks. 

“ _Insufferable_?” 

“Yeah, that!”

Sasuke just stares at him for a second, completely baffled. 

Akari takes a deep breath. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first pair she’s had to counsel who have the emotional depth and intelligence of a kiddie pool. At least these two have an excuse. 

“Okay, Naruto.” She rests her chin on steepled fingers. “Why do you feel this way about Sasuke?”

“Because he’s-” He pauses to gesticulate wildly at him. Sasuke looks offended by this. Akari feels offended and she’s not even the one being gestured at. “Sasuke.”

“That…” She starts in her most diplomatic tone. “Is not an answer.”

Naruto sulks, burrowing into his collar. “He thinks he’s so much better than everyone! And he’s mean to Sakura a lot.”

Alright, that was something, at least. “Is Sakura your third teammate?”

“Yeah!” Naruto lights up again. “She’s so smart and pretty! I don’t know how you can just ignore her like that.” He scowls, driving his elbow into Sasuke’s side. Sasuke kicks him in the ribs, scowling, and _almost_ smiles while Naruto rolls on the floor. 

“You two just get in my way.” Is what he says. Naruto fumes.

So that’s the problem, then. Sasuke doesn’t acknowledge Naruto, and that makes him angry. She can work with this, surprisingly enough. 

“Alright.” She glances at the clock. “Sasuke, what do you think of Naruto?”

“He’s a loser.” He says, flat, monotonous. “Dead last. Too loud.”

Naruto is practically vibrating, and based on the look on his face, they’re dangerously close to physical violence, and- too late. Naruto pounces before she can get so much as a word in, and now they’re wrestling on her couch. Naruto is pulling Sasuke’s hair and Sasuke looks like he’s trying to break Naruto’s foot. 

Akari sweeps a hand over her face.

“You two.” She says. “I have an appointment now. Get out of my office.”

She hauls the two of them off of her couch and ignores all the strange looks from her other clients, witnessing the two feral prepubescent boys destroying her office, as she kicks them to the curb. Not fifteen minutes later, neatly situated in her office and cleaning up the ceramic pieces of a vase they knocked over, someone knocks, and apparently those idiots are in the fountain now. 

She stomps out, ready to stop them in earnest.

Sasuke, in the distance, sits on the edge of the fountain, probably waiting for their chronically-late, porn addicted teacher to show up, when Naruto starts yelling something. Sasuke jerks his arms up and manages to push Naruto away. Naruto, shrieking loud enough to disturb a flock of nearby birds and the rest of her remaining clientele, points one hand accusingly. “Oi! You’ll pay for that!”

“ _Make me!_ ” 

Beside her, the client who pointed them out looks on, strangely resigned. “Are you going to break them up?”

“Let the jonin handle that.” She says wearily. “I’m sure they’ll wear themselves out eventually.”

Or not, because Naruto barrels into him and they both go falling back into the fountain, and one of the ducks squawks angrily and flies off, scattering white feathers and down everywhere. Sasuke might be holding Naruto under the water, she can’t tell. When they both do resurface, though, Akari is wary, because surely they’re both looking to escalate the fight further now-

Sasuke has feathers in his hair, and Naruto is soaking wet, sitting under the drizzling water, staring up at Sasuke through wet, clumped lashes, and she’s expecting someone to start screaming-

And then Sasuke _laughs_. It’s quiet, and short, but it’s definitely there, shoulder shaking, bright laughter. Naruto stares, entranced. 

And then-

And then Akari _gets_ it. 

“Holy shit.” She says, and thinks about Kakashi’s stupid smiling face. “That _bastard_.”

Oh, when he gets back, the two of them are going to have _words_. 

The next day, the two of them find themselves back in her office, both sulking. Naruto, pouting, recites an apology for the vase, probably on Kakashi’s behalf, and Sasuke makes a noise that, for the sake of her mental health, she’ll take to be an apology as well. 

“Alright, you two.” She says. “We’re going to try something different this time.”

They both stare at her suspiciously. Given their teacher, she can hardly blame them. 

“You’re going to compliment each other, back and forth.”

“This is worse than the writing thing!” Naruto crosses his arms huffily. “I’d rather do that!”

Sasuke scoffs. “I didn’t even think you were literate.”

“Hey!” Naruto whirls around, fist raised. “You take that back-!”

“Boys!” She cuts in sharply. “You didn’t let me finish. It’s a competition. The person who comes up with the most compliments won’t have to write Kakashi a letter explaining how much you admire him.”

They both make a face.

“I’ve already informed him.” She says sweetly. “So I’m sure he’ll hold you to it.”

Sasuke is staring at her in abject horror. Naruto sputters. “You’re just as bad as him!”

“I find that insulting.” She says flatly, and Sasuke snorts. “Naruto, you start.”

Naruto makes a sound like a dying animal and wracks his brain for something even remotely resembling a compliment. “You… have eyes.” He comes up with, eventually, and looks grudgingly proud of himself.

Setting the bar a little low, but it isn’t an insult, so she’ll let it slide.

Sasuke looks like he isn’t sure what to make of it. He squints, and then says, very reluctantly, “... you have a lot of chakra.”

She’s still not sure that’s technically a compliment, but for now that’s the closest she’s going to get.

“My turn again?” Naruto frowns. “You… have the cool eye thing.” 

“Sharingan.” He says quietly. This is going… okay. She’s almost a little bit proud. But not really, because they broke one of her vases yesterday and this is kind of pathetic, in her professional opinion. 

“You’re…” He pauses for a moment. “Loud.”

Naruto squawks and points a finger. “Hey! He insulted me!”

Sasuke looks disgruntled. Akari realizes belatedly that he hadn't meant it as an insult at all, though. “He means outgoing.” She supplies. “Keep going.”

While Naruto shrieks about the injustice of it, she watches it roll out. They’ve now moved onto hair. It’s still not really a compliment, more of an… observation, but it’s something. Most of their communication issues seem to stem from misunderstandings, which complicates things a bit. 

“Alright you two. I’m gonna meet with both of you individually now. Who wants to go first?”

“What?” Naruto sputters. “But - who won-?”

“Tie.” She looks between them. “Naruto, you stay. Sasuke, you sit outside.”

If he’s upset by the dismissal, it doesn’t show on his face as he leaves the room to sit in the lobby.

Naruto frowns and folds his hands behind his head. “What do you want to talk to me about?”

“I’m going to talk to both of you.” She corrects gently. “But I want to ask you about what happened in the Land of Waves. Kakashi said your teamwork’s been disrupted ever since.”

“Nothing happened!” He insists hotly. “Nothing!”

She arches an eyebrow. “Then why are you so upset by me asking?”

He doesn’t have an answer to that, so he slumps back against the couch. Very quietly, he says, “Sasuke kinda died.”

She blinks. “... would you care to… elaborate?”

He crosses his arms and pulls his legs up on the couch, still scowling. “I passed out during the fight. The kid was throwing these needles and he started aiming for me, and Sasuke took an attack meant for me and we all thought he died. I didn’t ask him to.” He says, like an afterthought. She… wasn’t expecting this. She suspects there’s more to the story than this, but for the moment she’ll take what she can get. 

“So you were upset.” She clarifies. 

Naruto’s entire face goes red. “So what!?”

“I’m not trying to insult you.” She assures. “You were worried about him-”

“I was _not_!”

“-And you took that out on him when he got back.” 

“He deserved it!” Naruto huffs. “He made Sakura cry.”

“An understandable reaction.” She allows. “But that’s… not really his fault.”

“He’s a bastard.” He scowls. “And then he had the nerve to keep saving me!”

Either Naruto has the biggest inferiority complex she’s ever seen, which she wouldn’t put past him, or he’s upset that Sasuke keeps putting himself in danger on his behalf, or some unholy combination of both. 

“Naruto.” She folds her hands carefully. “Have you considered that you might just care about Sasuke’s wellbeing?”

Naruto opens his mouth, and then closes it again. “Of course I do! Doesn’t make him any less of a bastard…” 

“But you don’t know how to express it.”

“Hey-!”

“How would you describe your relationship with him?”

He squirms. “I don’t know!” And then he squirms some more. “Stop asking questions like that! It’s dumb!”

“Alright.” She scribbles something down on her paper and goes over her carefully amassed notes. “Then will you answer some simpler questions?”

Naruto looks at her dubiously. “Only if it isn’t anything weird.”

She takes that as permission to proceed.

“Describe one good memory you had on the Land of Waves mission.”

“Tree climbing!” He exclaims. “It was so cool. Me and Sasuke were competing to see who could get to the top quickest and I was obviously better and got up there first.” That’s probably a lie. “And we were out there almost all night until we could get to the top because Kakashi-bastard wouldn’t let us be bodyguards until we could, and then we walked back together and got to protect the old man!” 

She nods, and makes note of this. “Next question, what was one moment of teamwork you had with Sasuke?”

“Ooh! This crazy guy Zabuza with this giant sword jumped out of the trees at us, right? And he was like, making these giant water dragons-” He demonstrates some of the hand signs, most of which look entirely made up, “And Kakashi-bastard got stuck in this water bubble, but then I pretended to be this demon wind blade and Sasuke got it as soon as he caught me because of course he did, my plan was genius, and then he threw me and we got Kakashi out!”

Interesting. She would press for more information on this Zabuza person, but it isn’t relevant. “And now, one bad memory.”

“... the whole dying thing.”

Right. She was assuming.

“Okay.” She dips her head. “Naruto, all of your memories seem to... revolve around Sasuke. And you have a lot of strong emotions towards Sasuke."

Naruto makes a face. "I _guess_..."

She sets her head on her hands and takes a deep breath. This is the part she's supposed to be good at. "It's not out of the question that you might be... mistaking what you're feeling for anger towards him, or you don't know how else to interpret it, and it's causing issues with your teamwork. Have you ever considered that you might… _like_ Sasuke?"

Akari feels weird having this conversation. Usually, all of her clients have already bypassed this point in their relationship, given that this is marriage counseling.

His face twists up. “I don’t like that bastard!” He seems to have missed the point altogether.

“I mean,” She starts. “Romantically.”

Naruto stares at her. Then, the flush rises from his neck to his face and he’s practically screaming.

“ _Of course I don’t_!” He looks like he’s having a panic attack on her couch. “I don’t like that bastard! Of course I don’t!” Akari is… not sure whether he’s trying to prove it to her, or to himself. “What’s there to like, anyways? Just his stupid smirk and his stupid hair and his _stupid face_ -”

“It’s okay, Naruto.” She reminds him. “It’s just a crush. It’s not the end of the world.”

“ _I don’t have a crush_!” He shrieks.

“Okay!” She raises her hands. “Okay, you don’t have a crush."

He sits back down.

“You do admit that you… care about him, though, right?"

He doesn’t react to that, just stares blankly at the floor. Oh, boy.

She continues, however cautious. “... and you feel strongly about him, in some way? And you tend to confuse those feelings for anger, which leads to fighting?”

Naruto makes a positively horrified noise, not unlike a wounded animal. She might’ve pushed him a little too far.

“No.” He says. “No, this can’t be happening.”

“Naruto-”

“I can’t have a crush on him!”

“Kid-”

“It’s supposed to be Sakura! I’m not supposed to - I can’t - no!”

“ _Naruto_."

He pauses whatever personal crises he’s having.

“You can just… go sit in the lobby for a minute. I’ll give you a second to… think things over.”

Mutely, he stands up and collapses in one of the plastic chairs. Sasuke stares at him inquiringly, but Naruto refuses to so much as make eye contact.

“Sasuke, you can come in.” She says. She hopes this will go a little better with him.

“What did you do to him?” He demands.

“I… caused a revelation, I think.” Is what she goes with. He glares suspiciously at her.

“Sasuke, I’m going to ask you a couple of questions, okay?”

Sasuke’s answers are as follows, all delivered generally in the same flat monotone:

 _I saved Naruto from Haku’s needles_.

 _Beating the idiot at tree climbing_.

 _Demon wind shuriken_.

 _Dying_. That last one is delivered with so much flippancy that she considers walking him over to psych personally. Instead, she stands her ground and asks him to consider his relationship with Naruto, and, because he seems slightly more civil to authorities who aren’t Kakashi, finds it safe to ask him more questions in this vein.

“... have you considered that you might like Naruto. Romantically.” She adds, unsubtly, because these two are dense as bricks.

Sasuke stares at her. “Is this why he’s hyperventilating in the lobby?”

She grimaces. “He’s a little… overwhelmed.”

Something dark crosses his expression and he refuses to talk for the rest of the session.

Well, there goes all her progress.

Later that day, Kakashi calls to inform her that now they aren’t talking at all, and that since it’s her fault, it’s her responsibility to fix them. For the first time, she truly considers leaving the office and getting some other job. Knitting is something normal people learn to do, right?

Instead, she dutifully and dreadfully books them another session, and rues the day she ever agreed to help him.

“So.” She clears her throat. The silence is tense and awkward. “We’re going to try this again. Sasuke, out, Naruto, let’s talk.”

“How do you know?” Naruto paces. He’s wearing tracks in her carpet. “Like, how can you be _sure_?”

She deadpans. “Describe all your happiest moments for me.”

Naruto makes a distressed sound. “Training with him.”

“Okay, calm down.”

“I do like him!” He wails.

“You can’t just not communicate. I know that's a litte hard for you, and you communicate in your own... unique way, but you have to tell him in whatever way that you can. Why don't you try now?”

She should have known better than to suggest that, because Naruto takes her advice a little too literally, and culminates in Naruto dragging Sasuke out of the building by the collar to scream at him in ways that she’s sure could definitely be seen as misleading. They’ve destroyed half the garden before Naruto runs around the corner of a building and gives chase, and Akari sighs. The things she does to keep her job.

She follows them out, careful to destroy the deep gouges in the earth - and she doesn’t even want to know how the _fuck_ they managed to do that - the earth uneven beneath her heels.

“You two-” She calls, irritated, before she stops.

She can’t quite see them, but they’re both huddled by the corner of the building, tensed and bristling, but she doesn’t quite expect the thing that comes next.

“I hate you so much.” Naruto hisses. “And I hate your _stupid nice hair_ and pretty face.”

Sasuke audibly sputters.

“And I’m mad that I’m not mad.” He huffs.

There’s a long moment of silence, and Sasuke huffs, a quiet laugh. There’s a moment of shuffling, a quiet, "You _moron_ ," and Akari catches just enough to see him step forward and tilt their foreheads together - and Akari turns _right_ the fuck around and starts back to her office, because she’s walked into so, _so_ many worse things happening in her office, but, well-

She can’t help but smile a little.

“Nice work, as always.” Kakashi says as he saunters up to her, hands in his pockets. On the hill below, the boys are rolling around in the grass and Sasuke is trying to knee Naruto in the ribs while Naruto laughs at him, a red flush creeping around his ears - and their hands are none too subtly tangled together.

“I didn’t do all that much.” She says, instead of trying to strangle him, as that would definitely cost her her career. “They just needed a push in the right direction.”

Kakashi has the gall to pull out his porn book.

She glowers at him. “A strange coincidence that you just happened to find the only marriage counselor in the city to give those kids to.”

“A strange coincidence indeed.” He replies, his visible eye crinkling at the corner.

“Bastard.” She snaps, and looks back at them. They’re both on their backs now, and Naruto is clumsily weaving a dandelion crown, and Sasuke is dozing. It probably doesn’t quite reach the level of elegance he was going for, but he turns, doing his best not to disturb him, before dropping it directly onto his face. He erupts into giggles as Sasuke sneezes a dandelion off his nose.

Looks like they didn’t really need her help after all. To think that the two of them figured it out all by themselves.

“Your kids are nightmares.” She tells him. “You deserve each other.”

Kakashi gets it anyways.

“Of course.” He replies cheekily. “Thanks for the help. They’re getting along better than ever.”

“Well,” She snorts, though she’s smiling. “At least someone’s happy.”

“Will you be around if we need your help again?” There’s something knowing in his tone.

She looks down at Sasuke, grimacing as he pulls dandelions and stems out of his hair, and Naruto, face down on the grass, laughing.

“You won’t need it.” She says, and is pleased to find that she means it.

**Author's Note:**

> This kind of got away from me, but I had a good time writing it. Thanks for reading! Feel free to tell me what you thought :)


End file.
